Exclusive: Marine attacked by Antifa mob in Philadelphia speaks out

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Exclusive: Marine attacked by Antifa mob in Philadelphia speaks out

Luis Torres describes what happened while he was touring the city with fellow reservist Alejandro Godinez.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," December 21, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Laura Ingraham, and welcome to the Special Edition tonight of “The Ingram Angle, Putting America First.”

We're just two hours away now from a partial government shutdown and we go live to Capitol Hill in just moments. Also it's not all shutdown news contrary to popular belief, Raymond Arroyo is here. You got to have some Christmas debates, come on we're right here. Die Hard, a Christmas movie, real a fake (ph) tree, you know it and he'll have all the crazy Christmas edition of the Friday Follies stuff.

Plus, you're not going to believe this story. Antifa actually attacks Marines in Philadelphia and they mistake -- it mistook them for white supremacist, only problem, they were Hispanic. One of them is here to talk to us exclusively, it's shocking. But first, Washington supposedly in chaos.

Well it's happening. The House and Senate have adjourned, and now at midnight tonight we will be in a partial government shutdown, all because the Democrats are refusing to fund the border wall. Just don't want to do it. Joining me now from Capitol Hill with all the details, working late at night -- oh, no rest for the weary, Peter Doocy. All right, Peter, what actually brought us to this point and now like just walk us through where do we go from here?

PETER DOOCY, CORRESPONDENT: Laura, first of all, look at the clock. There are still two more hours until a quarter of the government shuts down. But most lawmakers have been gone for several hours.

The Senate officially adjourned for the night in the 8 o'clock, hour after leadership announced. They didn't have the votes to pass a bill with $5 billion for a border wall, and they also announced that they weren't going to take any votes at all until leaders work something out with President Trump. Any changes they make to the bill would have to be approved by the House. But the House saw the writing on the wall, nothing was coming tonight. They adjourned early as well.

The last leader on the Hill tonight holding official meetings was actually the Vice President, Mike Pence, who brought Jared Kushner and Mick Mulvaney over to try to squeeze as much border wall money as possible out of Senate lawmakers, but he left about an hour ago, never indicating what the White House is offering in a deal or what they might give up.

The Vice President also had to break a 47-47 tie earlier today to move to debate on the border wall money, and they did. But 47 votes is far short of the 60 needed to pass in the Senate. That vote today was kept open for hours because lawmakers needed to fly back from home where they headed after passing a spending bill that didn't have any border wall money.

And many of them are already on their way back home to their home states, because leadership and the House and Senate they have told everybody they'll have a 24 hour heads-up before any kind of a meaningful vote on this spending bill, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Now Peter I hear the echo behind you. I'm half expecting tumbleweeds just start blowing through the great beautiful Capitol Hall that you're standing in. But I mean when is the last time you actually saw a living breathing human, Peter, that's my question.

DOOCY: Well, other than the majority leader of the House who's standing about four feet away from me, it's mostly just President --

INGRAHAM: OK. Well, he is coming on our show. Yes, he is coming on with us.

DOOCY: OK.

INGRAHAM: All right, Peter, thank you for giving us the latest on this. It is unbelievable. I mean, no compromise in sight and a lot of members have just decided to go home for Christmas. Well, joining me now Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager and Joel Rubin. Joel is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama. It's great to see both of you.

All right. Corey, I want to start with you, because we've heard this build- up now for about kind of 72 hours, I mean in earnest. The build-up -- I'm going to play a little montage of the media declaring that what's happened with Mattis resigning -- and we have a segment coming up on that. But Mattis resigning, the partial government shutdown, so far no wall funding, which means, of course, the end let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this the beginning of the end of what we have known is the Trump presidency. History will see this moment after the Jim Mattis resignation repudiation, as perhaps the beginning of the end of this presidency, as we know it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is a presidency in crisis like we haven't seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I mean, we could have played another four or five sound bites, which I actually thought we had there. But this is the drumbeat. I mean the Republicans are starting to abandon him, The Wall Street Journal is criticizing him, allies are up in arms, so et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Where does this stand now Corey? Any issues with messaging that can be tweaked or changed to get the narrative Trump's in charge, he's protecting the country?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, Laura it's very simple. This President made a pledge during the campaign -- I think it was his biggest pledge that he made. It received the largest amount of applause on the campaign trail and now we have to fulfill it, which is to build the wall in the Southern Border.

And the weak Republican leadership for the last two years in Congress have failed to deliver it. They asked the President not to shut down the government before the midterm elections, because they were fearful it's going to hurt them in the midterms, and they promised to put the funding in -- for the wall after the midterm elections and once again they failed the American people and the President said, we've had enough.

And because of your show and Jim Jordan coming on saying, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me FOUR TIMES, shame on you". The President saw that and said we can't tolerate this. And he knows if we don't get the funding for the wall now, it will never come to fruition.

INGRAHAM: Joel, so how do the Democrats go to the voters in the country? When we know that we spend $18 billion a year on health care for illegal immigrants and we spend billions more on public education. We're a compassionate people and that's just what we do. Well the Democrats can't find $5 billion to get the border fortification going in form of a wall, enhanced fencing et cetera? Why are we worried about other countries borders and not focusing on our own, Joel?

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Laura, we are worried about the American border and there is over a $1 billion that was already agreed to on a bipartisan basis by the Senate in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, supporting border security.

And I have to say, we got to remember that the applause line wasn't just about building the wall, it was that Mexico would pay for it and now the President is asking the American people to pay for it. I don't want to pay for a border wall and most of Americans don't.

RUBIN: But you are fine with paying for the $18 billion a year for health care, that's cool with you? I think that when you have people living in this country -- we didn't make sure that are not unhealthy.

INGRAHAM: OK. You're all right that. OK. So -- all right.

RUBIN: But, I mean the key thing here is that this border wall doesn't have the votes. And it's going to have less votes in about two weeks, so the votes aren't there. It's theoretical. They're not going to get the money from this Congress. They haven't for two years. So why are we shutting down the government for a vote that won't work in the President's favor?

INGRAHAM: Well, we deal in the realm of facts, so we have 25 percent of the government non-essential employees, non-essential services are covered under this shutdown, and Corey every time I hear non-essential, I say, "Oh, why are these people in the government at all?" Every time it's like a skeleton crew. We only need these people, why -- what is the --

LEWANDOWSKI: Right. What is that --

(CROSS TALK)

INGRAHAM: This is not essential.

LEWANDOWSKI: We don't really need you and so just stay home.

RUBIN: Yes --

INGRAHAM: It's craziness.

LEWANDOWSKI: It's also such a scam. As you know when they have these non- essential employees stay home and many of them are very good people, and they stay home for the extra day, when the government reopens, we back pay them for all the days they didn't come to work. So it's not like we saved any money in the whole thing.

INGRAHAM: Right.

LEWANDOWSKI: Right. But, look, there is a thing, the American people will pay for the wall. We've seen that through the GoFundMe, which has now been running for three or four days and they've raised 10, 11, $12 million. The American people will pay for security. The families who've had loved ones killed by illegal immigrants coming across that border will pay for the wall. You ask the American people to pay for it, we have the money it's a $4 trillion budget.

The Cash for Clunkers program under the Obama administration was a $3 billion boondoggle to take people's cars away and just throw money in the trash. You're telling me you can't do that to protect American people?

INGRAHAM: Yes, like I got to say to both of you, though. I mean, again, this is from the Democrats or the Republicans, I say a pox on both parties. I think both have handled this abysmally. It is abysmal handling of a national crisis at our Southern Border, humanitarian, environmental, economic, national security. I think both parties have really failed the American people here.

Both of you have a wonderful holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. I really appreciate your joining us tonight.

LEWANDOWSKI: Thanks Laura.

INGRAHAM: Big news night. And joining me now House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, well, apparently is the only person left on Capitol Hill. Congressman. OK. Well what here we are Congressman, I mean, you should be you know stuffing stockings at home and hanging the mistletoe and all the fun stuff you do in California. But here we are the government will shut down in two hours did you all wait too long?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF., MAJORITY LEADER: I don't know that we waited too long, if we look at the House, because the House has passed the funding before. I mean, as you know we've had the 5 billion in there. The challenge really lies -- and this is what the viewers have to understand.

The House did pass a bill that protects and secures the border. The Senate it takes 60 votes. So when it really comes to the question of shutting down it comes to Schumer. Does Schumer make a decision to shut down or not? And this is a fundamentally different shutdown than any of those in the past because we have already funded three-quarters of the government.

So when it comes to defense, our military men and others -- and women, they're all taken care of in this process. But this is too important to let keep going. We know what's happening along this border. We know we needed to have be secure. And think about what Schumer just said a couple weeks ago. He was for providing money for the border, but he's afraid it would affect Nancy Pelosi's vote for speaker January 3rd.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, but I got to tell you though, back in October you and I talked about this at the time. When Paul Ryan said we're going to do this big fight about the border in December. We're going to have conversation, it's going to happen. We all knew that was ridiculous, OK. I mean, you were not in that camp.

But for two years, Paul Ryan -- and I everyone hears me says, I like him very much as a person. He has not been on the President's side on this wall. He never wanted a wall, he never believed in the wall, he didn't like it, he didn't like a lot of what Trump was saying about the wall. So here we are at the 11th hour and this is all on Trump's shoulders? I find it outrageous that's on the President's shoulders. He's someone who actually wants this done.

I got to tell you Mazie Hirono, I know you and she are good friends. Mazie Hirono, Congressman -- Senator -- excuse me from Hawaii, on television blaming Fox News and basically talk radio. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, D-HI: He's got some rightwing loud people yelling at him on Fox News and suddenly he says, "Well I don't think I'm going to sign it". So it is very true that he will bring on this shutdown and he has to take responsibility for it. Any effort on his part to blame the Democrats will be such --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, she said the BS word there Congressman.

MCCARTHY: She does say a lot of crazy things.

INGRAHAM: Yes, is this a Fox News, talk radio, rightwing pundit shutdown or did the President kind of say, it's do or die here. Got to do it.

MCCARTHY: You know, the President campaigned on this. The President said he was going to fight for this all along. And this really comes down -- that it takes 60 votes in the Senate. But the President is doing what he promised, just like he's done across the country on everything else from getting tax reform and others. This President is a fighter.

And I know you might disagree with me, but Paul has been fighting for this wall as well, maybe didn't think at the right time. But here we are, we're in this fight and what's changed this week -- remember when Nancy Pelosi was sitting in the Oval Office. She looked at the President said, "Well, you don't have the votes in the House". Well, we overwhelmingly proved that's not true and we had sent the bill now to the Senate.

So it really lies with the Senate and the challenge there, as you've watched the vote before. It comes down to what Schumer has some power. And that's unfortunate for the President, but more importantly, it's unfortunate for America. We see what's happening across this border. We need have a secure border.

INGRAHAM: Got to the --

MCCARTHY: It has to. But that's why I'm still at work right now.

INGRAHAM: Yes, well again, I beg to differ. I think Paul Ryan could have gotten that the votes for that Goodlatte bill. You he came within like what 13 votes of passing that and everyone was told it wasn't going to happen. I think it could have happened and it would have happened.

But, look, you're right. I mean the Senate has the cards now. We really appreciate your spending time with us tonight and thank you so much Congressman McCarthy. All right we have a lot more to get to. Coming up the Democrats whiplash over war policy, Friday Follies with Raymond Arroyo, a brazen attack on two Marines by Antifa. All coming up stay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The anti-Trump forces in the media are pretending to be really distraught about yesterday's resignation of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. The sky is falling, there's chaos in Washington. The only adult has left the room. You've heard the echoes, beware.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A political earthquake is rolling through Washington as the Trump administration sinks further into chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no more grown-ups in the room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have America make in retreat across the globe and the most extraordinary resignation in modern American history, certainly in the past 40 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Democrats on the Hill who for 10 years we're demanding our troops come home from Iraq, they now sound like they went to the Paul Wolfowitz school of foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think this will be considered one of the worst foreign policy blunders of this century -- certainly of this century today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, who knows why the President is making this decision today. The way that he did it is totally ham-handed and it does make the country weaker.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., MINORITY LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: A decision made in the Cavalier fashion in terms of our allies in the fight against terrorism, a decision that is dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I'm thoroughly confused now. Didn't they elect Obama not once but twice, in part, based on his pledge to bring the troops home?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Over the last decade we have spent a $1 trillion on war at a time of rising debt and hard economic times. Now we must invest in America's greatest resource, our people. We must unleash innovation that creates new jobs and industries, while living within our means. America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Oh, I want to stand up and cheer. In fact, at one point in 2011 Pelosi and other top Democrats were criticizing Obama for the slow pace of his troop withdrawal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: Many of us would like to see this go faster than the path that was laid out, however it may, and with the proper progress, whether it's on the civilian side, on the governance side, on the anti-corruption side, it may well be that we can have a quicker drawdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: She's very impatient for the drawdown there. But when Donald Trump this President all the old principles of the Democrat Party, they fly out the window. Now further, I think it's wise to focus on the substance in Mattis' letter. Where he claimed for instance, "Our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the U.S. remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that rule effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies".

Well before we rush to engrave those words on a tablet in Independence Hall, now let's think about Mattis' claim there. While his deep and abiding sense of public service and military heroism is inspiring, we all love that part of Mattis. The argument that America's strength is in our alliances, kind of stands in contrast to what our framers believed.

I reread George Washington's farewell address, believing I'm not on the plane on the way down here, and all Americans should read it, I think, at least a few times a year. It's stunningly beautiful, it's wise, it's humble and in many ways it's prophetic. Now Mattis is a guy who himself is steeped in military history, he knows that Washington warned against entanglements abroad that would ultimately put our nation at home at risk and it wouldn't end up safeguarding the country's fragile independence.

He said the following. "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world". Wow, it's hard to -- hard to take that in now, right? That's what Washington said. But remember Thomas Jefferson echoed the same sentiment in his own inaugural message, he said, "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none". Washington also warned us to "Avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty and which are to be rewarded, as particularly hostile to Republican liberty".

Of course, the point would be driven home 161 years later after World War II and after the Korean War by President Eisenhower. In his own farewell address he said, "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex".

Now I'm not here tonight to say we shouldn't work with other countries, of course we do and we should, and we should live up to our commitment to help our allies. But it's also the case there -- we're not in a financial position to rev up the team America World Police squadrons either. And Mattis has said himself, including in his resignation that said, that we can't be the policemen of the world.

Whenever we take action abroad, especially military action, it should be based on clearly defined goals, with a specific and clear national security objective, which once reached, allows for an American withdrawal from the region. The argument from so many of the Bush Republican types is, "Well, we can't pull our troops out, because then chaos will ensue". Well by that thinking, we'll never leave anywhere we deploy, because chaos is always a possibility, especially in tumultuous places like the Middle East.

My friends Donald Trump's foreign policy is based in principled realism, not endless interventionism. We have no pressing national security interest in Syria now. We fulfilled our objective. We smashed ISIS, a success that the administration shares with General Mattis.

Joining me now reaction is David Morey, he's a former DHS, a special adviser under the Obama administration and Ben Friedman, Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, great to have both of you here tonight.

David, your old boss, Barack Obama, largely won the presidency on his non- interventionist message, specifically targeted at Iraq, but in general that America cannot overextend herself, nor should we try to remake other nations in our own image. So why do you take issue then with what Trump has done here in Syria?

DAVID MOREY, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Well, just like President Obama wasn't exactly perfect in the withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan, I think this is a mistake. I agree with some of what you said Laura, I disagree with some of what you said as well. I think it was mistake because it's beyond contrarian in terms of we've already defeated ISIS. I mean the majority of the National Security Community inside, outside the administration don't think we've -- that this is a good idea to withdraw 2, 000 troops from Syria. That it opens up the potential for reflash. The general -- the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff; obviously Secretary of Defense, Mattis; I believe, Ambassador Jeffrey; Special Envoy, McGurk. This is a little bit like declaring victory landing on the aircraft carrier with mission impossible behind you something that President George W Bush thought --

INGRAHAM: Really? Because, foreign policy -- saying -- like you just took a couple of months ago, and Ben I want to get you in this. A couple of months ago I was reading all the headlines this morning on the way down here, and it was foreign policy successes the Trump administration -- mission accomplished against ISIS. Obviously, ISIS wants to try to reconstitute itself and here there and everywhere, so you're never going to like destroy all of ISIS. But in the area where we were focused, ISIS has been driven out.

Ben I got to read somebody, this is Marc Thiessen's tweet earlier today. I love this tweet and get Thiessen big Bush guy. He said the following. I'll put it up on the screen. He basically said here, "Anyone who criticized Obama's irresponsible withdrawal from Iraq, but defends Trump's irresponsible withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan needs to check their hypocrisy". Your reaction there.

BEN FRIEDMAN, POLICY DIRECTOR, DEFENSE PRIORITIES: Yes, I think you're actually overstating Obama's anti-interventionism a little bit. He was the author of the surge in Afghanistan and put ground forces in Syria. But I agree with you on this. We need a definition of success where ISIS' defeat that mortals can achieve.

The national security experts that we're hearing so much from complaining about this, have a standard of defeat for ISIS that's impossible to achieve. It's sort of like if anybody in Syria thinks nicely of ISIS or says anything in their favor, we have to stay in Syria forever. So I think we've achieved a reasonable standard of success against ISIS. They don't have any territory anymore. That's a important thing. They don't have the allure to attract people to come -- idiots from around the world to come fight for them. Their ranks are decimated. They've been mostly killed. So if that's not success then nothing is, and we're going to stay in Syria forever.

INGRAHAM: I want to play for you -- just so our viewers remember what Donald Trump said he was going to do in his general approach to foreign policy. Remember he gave his big foreign policy speech, I think, it was December a year ago when he laid out his priorities like principled realism. I want to play this and get your reaction. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our leaders engaged in nation building abroad, while they fail to build up and replenish our nation at home. They undercut and shortchanged our men and women in uniform with inadequate resources, unstable funding and unclear missions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: All right, David, that's what the President basically campaigned on. Barack Obama said something similar. But I think, well Ben's right, realism on the ground in Afghanistan kicked, couldn't pull everybody out, had a mini surge in Afghanistan. Reluctantly deployed troops in Syria. He didn't want to do it at all. Had the red line. OK. Trump smashed him back on the red line of chemical weapons used.

But look Donald Trump did respond to these chemical attacks. He got criticism from a lot of folks when he did actually on the noninterventionist, right? But he did respond. It's not like Donald Trump has done nothing in Syria. So to hear all these Democrats today say, "Well, Donald Trump's just had a herky-jerky foreign policy". I think it's been fairly consistent. Well, he said, when we get it done, we're going to draw down troops, because we have a lot of stuff to do on the home front that is frankly not been done, not been paid for and we've got to take care of business at home. I think it's just fulfilling its promise.

MOREY: Well let me say this, I think and Ben might -- can see this point in what he wrote earlier today. What gets people worried is the lack of a national security decision-making process. I think President Trump made this decision talking to President Erdogan on the phone. So there's no strategy communication scenario planning that feels like it's in action.

Number two, it's bigger than Syria. Just like Afghanistan, if 9/11 was bigger than Afghanistan, what could this incubate? What are the ramifications for Israel, Iran? There are a lot of questions there. Listen, $3 trillion of spending on Iraq and Afghanistan is in some ways hard to defend from any perspective from any party. So I think the issue is what do these 2, 000 troops represent into the potential of a reflash and the potential of a danger to the United States of America?

INGRAHAM: But there has always. Ben -- guys, there is always a potential for reflash. That's why going into these very difficult, tumultuous places with tribal factions -- ISIS is a Sunni terror group, Hezbollah is Iranian backed, then you get the (INAUDIBLE) with Bashar al-assad. You get the Christian community that was protected by Assad and has been destroyed and brutalized and persecuted under ISIS in what's happened. So this is a complex web of relationships and details.

And I think -- again, the idea that there is a great constituency, Ben, for a return to Bush style interventionism where we establish these beachheads and never leave, I just don't think the American people are for that. At some points is going to affect Democrats and Republicans really badly, because you're going to really get someone in the White House who really doesn't want to do any foreign policy of this nature at all, and that will hurt us.

BEN FRIEDMAN, POLICY DIRECTOR, DEFENSE PRIORITIES: It's a beltway consensus. I agree with you, the American people, I think polls show, are not for endless occupational wars. It continues to stun me the extent to which people in this town look at the last 15 years of American foreign policy in the Middle East and say that went well. I think we should have another occupational work using U.S. military forces to manage a sectarian civil war for an indefinite period in service of some management goal. It really continues to blow me away that that is the sort of default foreign policy thinking around here.

INGRAHAM: There have been a lot of changes in thinking. There's some evolution. And look, I don't mind when people evolve in their thinking. I was very rah-rah about the war in Iraq, I love our troops, went over there and did a show there for a week. But after a while it became fairly obvious to me it was a huge mistake, and many others. So people evolve, they change. But Rachel Maddow, who I think, look, she does a good job over there at MSNBC but it's kind of confusing where she's come down on this issue. Let's hear what she said last night. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: The way that U.S. troops are fighting ISIS in Syria is in partnership with the Kurds and partnership with Kurdish fighters who are believed by the U.S. military to be the most effective anti-ISIS force on the ground. And if the U.S. is now going to leave, what you're hearing, what you just described, is essentially devastation for the Kurds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: But then in an interview she did for a book, Glenn Greenwald tweeted this out earlier, an excerpt from this book called "Drift," she said in part we don't need a radical new vision of post Cold War American power. We just need a small "c" conservative return to our constitutional roots, a course correction, advocating against this almost colonial approach to foreign policy. I think the left is really kind of caught in between two different countervailing positions here, David, and I think it is hard to square the circle.

DAVID MOREY, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER: I think that foreign-policy needs to be driven from the center. We might even agree on that. You talked about at the beginning entangling alliances. I agree we're against that. That doesn't mean we're against all alliances. We can't take our allies and make them adversaries. And I'm not sure it's a good idea to take our autocrats and make them allies. I think that's the challenge that we have today. I think this is too much of a dangerous world to be in it alone.

INGRAHAM: Wait a second, OK, David, but we're dealing with China, right. China, we trade with China. We do technology transfers with China. They have a Marxist-Leninist regime. So all these people are like, oh, we cant deal with bad actors. We're dealing with bad actors morning, noon, and night with China, CEOs, Hollywood, the media, universities. So we've got a while. Real quick, because we're out of time, Sec Def, any picks? Ben, real quick.

FRIEDMAN: I can't think of anyone who would take the job who I could recommend for it.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: All right, David, anyone?

MOREY: Bill Cohen. He's not going to take the job either. So that's not helpful.

INGRAHAM: OK. Well, mine is Jim Webb.

FRIEDMAN: That's good.

MOREY: I'd like that.

INGRAHAM: I think it would be a great choice.

MOREY: We all agree.

INGRAHAM: Former secretary of the Navy and former assistant secretary of defense. He's my pick. He would be phenomenal. All right, guys, thanks so much.

And coming up, Raymond Arroyo and I settle one of the biggest Christmas disputes of all. We can debate Syria, but we're going to debate something -- oh, I love the hat. Isn't that beautiful?

Plus, more gross toys to buy kids this holiday season. Must we do this? that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PETER DOOCY, CORRESPONDENT: I'm Peter Doocy on Capitol Hill. With an hour and change to go until a partial government shutdown the capital is quiet. The House and the Senate both adjourned in the middle of a spat about how much the border wall should get. The House says $5 billion is good. The Senate says that's probably going to be too much. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer chastised the majority party for only getting 47 votes on a measure to move to debate for being far short of the 60 needed to pass. Ultimately there weren't enough Republicans or Democrats with the enthusiasm Lindsey Graham had when he urged them all to dig in.

There has been talk about maybe trying to move forward with $1.6 billion of wall money, but the House Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows, one of the lawmakers who encouraged President Trump to take a stand and veto anything that doesn't have border wall money, says $1.6 billion is inadequate. Most lawmakers, though, are on their way back home, so this shutdown could go for a while.

Now back to "The Ingraham Angle."

INGRAHAM: It's Friday and that means it's time for Friday Follies. Come on, be in a good mood.

Vacation time, kind of sort of? Well, maybe you're working. Well, tonight, how do you know that you're really watching a Christmas movie? Our traditional real versus fake tree debate and more popular toys you may not want under the tree. Throw them away now.

Joining us now with all the details, Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of the "Will Wilder" series. Raymond, Raymond, Raymond, this is wild. OK, they are all these familiar movies that show up on TV or streaming this time of year. And it's fun because they're kind of a family tradition. For me it's "It's a Wonderful Life," those types of movies. But there is now a debate over whether that Bruce Willis, the old film "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie. Explain this to me, please.

RAYMOND ARROYO, CONTRIBUTOR: For years this has been going on, whether it's a Christmas movie or not. So Twentieth Century Fox put out this trailer to end the debate. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get ready to jingle some bells, and deck the halls with boughs of holly. Bruce Willis in the greatest Christmas story ever told.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Laura, this really doesn't end the debate at all. I know they're trying, but remember what Bruce Willis said a few years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE WILLIS, ACTOR: "Die Hard" is not Christmas movie.

(APPLAUSE)

WILLIS: It's a -- Bruce Willis movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Then there was the poll, Laura. And 62 percent of people said it's not a Christmas movie, only 25 percent thought "Die Hard" was. And though I'm happy to have the debate, we can do it on Twitter @RaymondArroyo or @IngrahamAngle, I have my own Arroyo guide to is it a Christmas movie. Here's my checklist. Is it set during Christmas? And can the whole family watch it? Is it redemptive and uplifting? Based on that criteria, "Die Hard" is not a Christmas movie. Do you agree?

INGRAHAM: I love the movie. It brings me back to the 80s. It was the late 80s, am I getting it right, it was late 80s or mid 80s?

ARROYO: Yes, late 80s.

INGRAHAM: Yes. Who doesn't want to go back to the late 80s? So I love the movie. But it's not a Christmas movie at all. It's ridiculous. Just because there is an ornament hanging on a tree in some scene in a movie doesn't mean it's a Christmas movie.

But Raymond, you like "Christmas Vacation," right? Is that one of your favorites?

ARROYO: I do. And we're going to go through a few movies here. Let's start with "Home Alone," which is, by the way, written by John Hughes who also wrote "Christmas Vacation." This is the classic of the boy taking on a pair of hapless criminals and protecting his home. This got a kind of reboot this year. Google premiered a new ad with MaCaulay Culkin as a grownup Kevin McAllister. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good add aftershave to my shopping list.

Hey Google, remind me to clean these sheets later.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, I'll remind you.

Someone is at the front door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do I owe you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like you paid online.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep the change you filthy animal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, cool.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK, he looks exactly the same. He hasn't aged. He looks the same. It's weird. I think it's creepy that then and now. I think it's kind of creepy. But is it a Christmas movie?

ARROYO: Well, it absolutely is a Christmas movie. But you know, Laura, this would never work today because you've got all the gadgets and you would just get on your accounts and social media and alert the people. Little Kevin had to take on the criminals. And it's redemptive because, remember, he wanted his family to go away because they kind of ignored him, treated him poorly. And after being alone at home, he figures out he loves and wants his family and they come back together. So it's a perfect Christmas movie, as is "Daddy's Home II."

INGRAHAM: I won't say, Raymond, whether any of my children have screamed I wish I didn't even have -- it's that time of year when everybody's at each other's throats. I wouldn't wish that. Remember "Home Alone." We've actually said that. What is the next one, "Daddy's Home II"?

ARROYO: "Daddy's Home II," Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, and John Lithgow and Mel Gibson of course stole the show. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're back with more daddies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look who's here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why does the duck have feathers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To cover up his butt quack.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kids, I've got a good one for you. Two dead hookers wash up on the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: It's a little racy around the edges, but there's nothing a family can't watch here. And it's actually a lot of slapstick and a great deal of fun. And it's all about Mel Gibson. So, yes, Christmas movie, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Finally, we have -- keep it rolling, guys. We have "Christmas Vacation," the one I mentioned earlier, the Chevy Chase holiday family disaster that seems to be like on TV wall-to-wall this time of year. Is that a Christmas movie or not?

ARROYO: It was also written by John Hughes, absolutely a Christmas movie. It talks about the beauty of Christmas not matter how imperfect it is. You watch poor Clark Griswold suffer like the rest of us. And it's a lot of fun. It's a great film. It's one of my favorites, though there is one racy scene, so fast forward past that.

INGRAHAM: What we have now. We have real versus fake, finally a real versus fake deep. I wait all year, I get all my anecdotes ready, I get it all ready for you.

ARROYO: Here we go. Laura, your team this year put out an ad, OK. And this group was called the Christmas Tree Promotion Board. They aired $1 million spot trying to get people to buy more real trees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All those tree operations are pretty much family, multi-generational, people that worked hard to make that experience valuable to the customers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It truly is a family business. It's Christmas. Keep it real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: That's night, Laura, but you know me --

INGRAHAM: Hold on, Raymond. I won't say whether or not there is an Ingraham tree farm somewhere in Massachusetts that is family related. So I am a little biased here, and it's an awesome tree farm. But lay it on me. Why do the Arroyos, who are just such beautiful, earthy people, you love food and music and New Orleans, why the heck do you people prefer the fake trees? I don't get it. They're all made in China.

ARROYO: I'm going to tell you why, and 80 percent of Americans agree with this, 80 percent of Americans by artificial trees. Here's why, a study 2011, a SUNY study, found that 50 types of mold spores were on that tree. They contain all kinds of varmint, snakes, rats, beetles embedded in the tree. They get in your home. And let me tell you, for your family Laura, with the dog running around, the schats (ph) that fall from the tree, those little dry needles, and --

INGRAHAM: You love saying the word schats (ph).

INGRAHAM: I love -- those schats (ph) fall, the dog can choke on it. It can puncture their intestine. You don't want a real tree in the house. And Ingraham, in your house, you don't water it enough, so it looks like this.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Oh, no. Well, the good news it, who needs a fireplace?

ARROYO: Warmth at least for one night.

INGRAHAM: I will say this, that it is a bit annoying that it's always Unplug the tree. You come home, we have a couple of trees. So unplug the tree. I have to say I have one fake tree in my house this year. I have two real ones and one fake one. I don't spend any time.

ARROYO: I'm glad you're coming to the light, Laura.

INGRAHAM: No. I don't spend any time in front of the fake tree, no time. It's only in front of the real trees.

ARROYO: Spray the pine scent, you don't know the difference, except you don't get fires.

INGRAHAM: All right, Raymond, thank you so much. Again, I win, real always wins out over fake. Raymond Arroyo, merry Christmas.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Coming up, another story which is unbelievable. You won't even believe this. Two marines were accosted by these leftwing Antifa thugs. We're going to speak exclusively to one of the men who was attacked, verbally assaulted, and why did this happen in the city of brotherly love? Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Throughout the year this show has highlighted the disturbing spate of violence from the far left activist group Antifa. From Portland to Berkeley to right here in Washington D.C. they have stood against free expression and decent society, and that's putting it mildly. But this latest case might be the most disturbing of them all. A brutal attack on two marines in Philadelphia.

For more we go to our own Trace Gallagher in our west coast newsroom with the full story. Trace?

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Laura, good evening. Marine reservists Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres, were punched, kicked, pepper sprayed, and robbed in the heart of the lead. It happened in November just down the street from where the conservative We the People rally had taken place. The marines say they came to Philly to attend an event and did not know anything about the conservative rally which was attended by about 30 people and about 200 counter protesters, including Antifa activists.

Police say the rally itself was fairly calm aside from a few scuffles and counter protesters being arrested. But the attack on the Marines down the street was a whole different thing. After Philadelphia police released this video of the suspects, 33-year-old Thomas Keenan, said to be the leader of Philadelphia's Antifa activist group, and 33-year-old Thomas Massey were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy and aggravated assault.

And court testimony laid out just how horrible this attack was. The Marines, who testified in uniform, said they were sightseeing before being approached by Tom Keenan who asked them, quote, "Are you proud?" Godinez answered, "We are marines." Keenan then asked, "Are you Proud Boys?" referring to the alt-right group behind the rally.

According to the Marines, that's when the two suspects along with a group of about 10 others began their attack, beating them, even though Godinez is Mexican. Godinez says the group had a mob mentality, saying, quote, "The best way I can describe it is the sound of people chanting in a soccer stadium," and that the suspects were "laughing, smiling, and having a good time while I could have died that day." Godinez estimates he was sprayed with mace at least six times and kicked in the head and ribs, adding that his eyesight is still affected by the attack and it might require surgery. The judge has now ruled that both suspects will stand trial beginning next week. Laura?

INGRAHAM: Thanks. Thanks very much, Trace. It is beyond disturbing. Joining me now is one of the Marine reservists attacked, Luis Torres. Luis, I first heard about this, I thought to myself, this is when I'm glad my mother and father have gone to their final resting place because I don't even know how they would react to this. They would say, what has happened to our country that something like this could happen to two marines just trying to go and see the sights in the city of brotherly love. Take us through what happened that day.

LUIS TORRES, MARINE RESERVIST ATTACKED BY ANTIFA: Thanks for having me, Laura. So me and Corporal Godinez were in downtown Philly in the Penn's landing area, around there. We've never Me and the other corporation over in downtown Philly in the area around there. We've never been in that area ourselves. That was her first time.

We were with our entire squadron to meet at the Liberty Bell by noon, so not only were we there, we were mandated to be there by our command to be there for professional military education, it's what we call PME, just to check out the landmarks, check out the historical exhibits in regular civilian attire.

And lo and behold, we would never know later on we would fall victims to these activists. We were there at noon, and my first priority was simply to grab a bite to eat. And so me and Godinez together, we go find somewhere, a casual restaurant. We get something to eat, we have plenty of time to kill. That evening at our Hilton, the Marine Corps bought the Hilton Hotel, so to celebrate the 243rd birthday of the Marine Corps. So that was our plan being at Philly.

INGRAHAM: OK, when did you get confronted by these characters? Take us right to that moment. What happened, because are you dressed in your full marine uniform?

TORRES: At that moment, not at all. Like I said, we arrived there at 12:00 in casual civilian attire up to 3:00 p.m. We visited the --

INGRAHAM: I'm sorry to interrupt you. But so you get closer. And a couple of these characters come up to you and ask -- we saw Trace's report, are you proud, you're a marine, a Proud Boy. You didn't know what "Proud Boy" meant. It's a far right group that has these little rallies. How did it feel to be called a white supremacist as someone of Hispanic descent?

TORRES: That is extreme irony to us. We found it very ironic and confusing as well. I don't know who would look at us and suppose white supremist, neo-Nazi, or anything like that. Godinez is Mexican, I am Puerto Rican. We are two Hispanic Marines on duty that day during duty hours. And to be confronted white folks, not supposing that there is anything racially charged towards us until they ask us, are we Proud Boys. And then later on the crowd just calls us these racial slurs, and then later on calls us racial slurs for being of Hispanic heritage, the irony was just colossal.

INGRAHAM: Semper fi, my friend, merry Christmas. Sorry you had to go through this. I'm glad you're OK, and give our best to Alejandro. And I know he had a rougg go of it, and he's still suffering the results of these injuries. This is Antifa. My gosh, this is the United States of America. Disagree, disagree virulently if you want, but not this. This is criminal, this is thuggery, and it's a type of domestic terrorism. Thank you so much, we appreciate your time.

TORRES: Appreciate it.

INGRAHAM: And we'll be right back with my Christmas message to all of you. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: I want all of you to take time this Christmas season and all the way up through the new year, to just be. Be without politics, be with your family, be with your friends. That is what I intend to do. And I also have a wedding to go to. It's going to be a busy, busy holiday. But I want you to enjoy yourself, take some time just for you and your family. Turn everything else off, just be together. We're blessed to live in this country, and we are blessed to have all of you who tuned in every night. We had a phenomenal year, lots of news. And this new year coming up is going to be wild.

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